


A Pale Imitation

by SlothBaby (crimsonherbarium)



Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Cereal, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Needs A Hug, Gen, Spider-Verse, peter continues to be a so-so role model, spider-fam, spider-gwen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 05:05:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17094434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimsonherbarium/pseuds/SlothBaby
Summary: This shouldn't have been the weirdest part of Gwen's week.Hopping dimensions and meeting Peter B. Parker stirs up some painful memories for Gwen about what happened to her own universe's Peter.





	A Pale Imitation

This shouldn’t have been the weirdest part of Gwen’s week.

It shouldn’t have even been the weirdest part of her year. That was kind of the deal with being Spider-Woman. Things got weird. One minute she was at band practice, and the next she was several hundred feet up in the air, fighting off some new campy threat to the city. She’d fought lizard-people, she’d been sucked through a hole in the multiverse, and now she was coworkers with a talking pig. Now _that_ was weird.

Still, she thought as she bit her lip, that wasn’t the strangest thing about this collider fiasco. Not by a long shot.

“Raisin Bran? Are you kidding me?” Peter muttered to himself as he rummaged through May’s kitchen cabinets. “Wheaties? This universe’s Peter had terrible taste in cereal.” He dug deeper, half his body practically inside the cabinet. “Ah-ha! Got it.”

Peter emerged, holding a box of Captain Crunch triumphantly aloft. Gwen rested against the door frame, watching him retrieve a blue-patterned bowl and fill it to the brim with cereal. Peter splashed milk over the lot of it and leaned back against the counter, digging in.

“Y’know, Peanut Butter Crunch would be better. But this is about as unhealthy as blondie got, apparently.” He shoveled a spoonful into his mouth, crunching it loudly.

Gwen rolled her eyes.

“So, want to tell me what’s going on with you?” Peter said through a mouthful of cereal.

“Hmm?” Gwen looked up, startled to find him looking directly at her.

“Think I haven’t noticed you watching me?” Peter tapped his temple with the spoon. “I got spidey-sense too. And don’t think I didn’t pick up on your intro in the woods. You said you couldn’t save your universe’s Peter Parker. What happened?”

“Oh, um…” Gwen looked away.

“Look, Miles got his killed too. I’ve already visited my own grave once this week. Do you have any idea how weird that is?” He shoveled more cereal into his mouth. “It’s not gonna phase me. Come clean.”

Gwen clenched her teeth for a minute. “I don’t really like talking about it?”

“C’mon, it’s me.” Peter flashed her what was probably supposed to be a charming smile.

Gwen rolled her eyes again.

Peter raised an eyebrow.

“Fine.” Gwen made her way to the kitchen table and sat. “It’s kind of a long story, okay?”

“Do I look like a guy who has anywhere else to be?”

Gwen sighed. “So, my universe’s Peter Parker wasn’t Spider-Man. He was a regular guy. He was sweet. And he was my friend.” She crossed her arms. “But other people didn’t treat him nicely. They bullied him. He got desperate. He wanted powers…like mine. He wanted to be more than just a regular guy. He wanted to be a superhero.”

Peter poured more cereal into his bowl. “With you so far.”

“Peter got his hands on some serum…I’m still not sure exactly how he got it. But he drank it, and it turned him into a monster. In my universe, they called him the Lizard.”

“Oh man, not that asshole,” Peter groaned. “Had him in my universe too. But obviously…not me.” He gestured at himself with the spoon.

“Right, so…death and destruction, standard Spider-Person stakes. I had to stop him. And so we fought.” Gwen hugged herself, squeezing her arms tightly. “I don’t know if it was the serum, or if I just…pushed him too hard. I stopped the Lizard. But Peter didn’t make it.”

For a moment, the only sound in the kitchen was Peter chewing his mouthful of cereal. He swallowed. “…Yikes.”

Gwen narrowed her eyes. “Yikes? That’s all you have to say?”

Peter sighed, setting his bowl aside on the counter. “Gwen, I’m not him,” he said sadly. “I can’t tell you what he was thinking. I can’t forgive you, because it didn’t happen to me. But I doubt it was your fault.”

“You don’t know that.” Gwen blinked back tears.

“Look, you’re a good kid. Collateral damage happens. It’s part of the job. Believe me—I’ve been doing this for twenty-two years.”

“Does it get easier?”

“A little.”

Gwen sniffled.

“Uhh…” Peter looked around, fumbling for something to kill the awkwardness. “You want some cereal?”

Gwen snorted. “You really are a terrible role model.”

“I know.” Peter’s shoulders sagged.

Gwen stood and crossed the kitchen before she had a chance to change her mind and threw her arms around his waist. Peter stiffened and then relaxed, patting her awkwardly on the back.

“I missed you,” she murmured.

“I’m right here,” Peter said quietly. Gwen suspected he knew exactly how she felt. Seeing May again had to be just as weird for Peter as this was for her.

She pulled away, wiping her eyes. “Don’t get killed, okay?”

Peter gave her a half-smile. “I always do my best.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I love Peter very much and love that he can still be a somewhat competent Spider-Man despite being A Disaster™. 🍕


End file.
